Dana's Raspberry Lemonade Cheesecake bars!

My sister and her husband visited last weekend and she made these DELICIOUS Raspberry Lemonade Bars and they were SO good! They had a layer of crust, a layer or raspberry lemonade, and a layer of cream cheese glaze.

She got it off Handle the Heat. You can get it there. Or here! She made her own cheesecake topping though. I think the topping really made it great.


Make it. Eat it. Love it.

~Raspberry Lemonade Cheesecake Bars~

Ingredients:

for the crust:

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup flour
• pinch salt

for the filling:

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 egg whites
• 1 whole egg
• 2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 3 lemons)
• 2 tablespoons lemon zest (from 2 lemons)
• 2/3 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour
• pinch of salt
• 1-2 cups of frozen raspberries, defrosted -OR- fresh
  

for the cream cheese glaze:

• 1 block of cream cheese
  
• 1 cup of powdered sugar
  
• 1 t. lemon juice
  

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 8×8″ square baking pan with a strip of parchment paper that covers the bottom and overlaps on either side (this is so after it cools, you can pull out the entire pan of lime bars and cut them neatly).
2. Cream butter, sugar, and salt with an electric mixer. Mix in flour until just incorporated. Flour hands and press dough into 8×8″ square baking pan, so that it comes up about a 1/2 inch around the sides.
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until slightly golden brown. While it cools, prepare the filling.
4. Whisk sugar, egg whites, egg, lemon juice and zest, flour, and salt in a large bowl. Pour raspberries into a sieve and press through to extract all the pulp and juices. (Dana didnt have a sieve so she left the seeds and it still tasted great!!) Discard any remaining seeds. Whisk into lemon mixture and pour into crust. Bake for 30-35 minutes until filling is completely set.
5. Let cool completely then place in the fridge to chill.
6. Once chilled, mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, and lemon juice. If it is too thick, or you need to spread it a little further, add a little extra powdered sugar and milk to your desired consistency.
7.Then spread ontop the bars. Let chill to harden a little. Serve!

SPOT THE DIFFERENCES- ANSWERS!

You guys guessed 3, NICE!

If you didn't read the comments, here were the differences...

1) Those UGLY UGLY UGLY stenciled early 90's flowers have disappeared, YAY!!! Justun ran wires for something or another a while back, and had to drill out a piece of the wall, so we took it to Home Depot and the did a paint match on it. 4 bucks later, we had enough to patch some nail holes and cover the stencils!

2) There was a pot on the window! I've been dreaming of one day having a plethora of raspberries in our back yard, so Justun got me a raspberry plant for Mother's Day! It gets watered and gets great sun there... at least for now. Soon we will be transplanting it outside.

3) We got a new range/oven/stove!!! Long story short, the old one had one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel since it was built in 91, so it was no surprise when it started beeping like a fire alarm, the month after we bought our house. After 8 months of arguing with our Home Owners warranty company, they finally cut us a check for a new one! We paid out of pocket about 50 extra bucks to get this nice stainless steel smooth top one, plus a few extra dollars for Justun to convert our hookups from gas to electric (I know, he is AWESOME). It's so much nicer and easier to clean!



4) There is a clock on the wall now! I got that a few years ago at Robert's for 6 bucks. I know it doesn't match the red, but little by little we are replacing red things and lots of other things in our open floor plan are orange so it looks okay! Trust me!

5) I fixed the faux wood drawer under the sink. I'll embarrass myself by telling you I broke it by pulling on it thinking it would be like our friends whose comes out and has a little spot for sponges, etc. It was a quick fix and is still not a drawer, but next time we go to home depot, I'm going to make sure it we get the parts so it will be!

hopefully in the next few months we can save enough money for the supplies to redo our cabinets! This oak is just killing me! And the white handles!

having your cake and eating it too!

I have a confession. I am obsessed with everything in glass jars. Our milk is in glass jars (ok, jugs), I made cute jams in glass jars, I decorate with glass jars, and now.....

DID YOU KNOW?!?!?!?
That you can bake cupcakes in glass jars!?

Well you can, and they are the CUTEST things, if I do say so myself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~Lets begin!~~~~~~~~~~~~

First you need to bake a cake. You can make one from scratch if you like, or if you are anything like me, a Duncan Hines will work every time. (Hey! I am NO Paula Deen!)

I just threw everything in the mixer and 1 minute later the batter was ready. Oh, and I chose lemon because it was a Sunday night and that was all that was in the pantry.

Next you'll want to take your empty glass jars, spray the inside with a little pit of PAM, and fill them about 1/4th of the way full with batter. DO NOT OVER FILL! You will be sorry. You can use ANY KIND of jars! I used sterilized baby food jars. I had tons and for some reason have an obsession with things that are small and cute. Dont worry, They had been scrubbed with GOO GONE to get the glue from the label off, hand washed, boiled, AND put through the dishwasher! They are clean, I swear it!


To make them stay put so they don't totter on my oven rack, I just sat them in a muffin tin.

Next, just put them in the oven! The box said 350 degrees but I was nervous they might break so I cooked them at 335, just to be safe. They worked great! Don't believe me?! Here they are baking away into cute little tastynesses (?)

After about 15 minutes, they were done (use a toothpick to make sure)

how cute!

Finally, add your frosting (cream cheese please!), and whatever else you like. Sprinkles, nuts, etc. I used chocolate chips. Then add a cute little fabric top so boys wont puke when they see Gerber on the lid.

These look like paper towels but they were white fabric squares that i just hot glued and pinched around the lids. Next time I would like to make them a lot cute by using different fabric and maybe sew a stretchy elastic in so the lids are easier to reuse but if i wasnt up til 1am making them, I might've attempted it.

Here they are in all they're glory!

they are super cheap to make especially if you reuse jars you already have! Plus they transport a lot easier than regular cupcakes and are MUCH cuter, don't ya think?!
YUM!

glazing PART TWO!

Just like the headboard.... but not!

One day my friend Jess and were shopping and although we went to the DI for something else, we found this AW.FUL. mirror for 8 bucks so I had to have it!

I must have deleted the pictures of how it looked just white (no glaze) after painting it. But VIOLA! Here she is all painted and glazed and everything! I chose white because I sort of wanted it to match the bed and the colors in the room it's going in are black, white, and red...

My flash was on so that's why its sort of really bright looking! Also, between trying to not get myself in it, or any shadows, or the construction of the rest of the room... these are the best angles I could get

As soon as it's hung, and the room is put back together, I'll post pictures of the whole room!

The End!

Can you spot the differences?! (kitchen)

There are 5! I wish I could say my cabinets and handles are one of them, but that is a whole 'nother time and post.

Hint... the fact that I am missing paper towels is NOT one of them. We need to make a Costco run...

** Also, click on the picture to make a new window, then click on the picture to make it bigger!**

from tile to ???

In my previous post, i had a picture of a couple of these cute little things, promising to show you something fun i thought up. Well I'll give you a hint....

1) They go on tables
2) You can sit your sweet (herbal/caffeine free) tea or hot chocolate on them
3) They are COASTERS!

Okay, maybe i gave it away
---------

When we moved into our house last year, the seller left a really nice, expensive (albeit very "cabin-ish") dining table and chairs. And although it wasn't exactly to our taste, or decor, to keep it in good condition we needed some coasters so we didn't get ring stains. I looked EVERYWHERE for some cute coasters that weren't too expensive. My friend and I were at home depot and came across these tiles!

9 for about 4 bucks!

Well I didn't like the natural grey color so after a lot of different color decisions, Justun (the husband) picked out this nice light brown tannish color. FOR 2 BUCKS!

They have these sample containers all ready-made and they cap is a brush when you unscrew it! PERFECT! (FYI, one container covers 9 square feet)

I painted all of my tiles with 2 coats each

Be very careful, i don't know if one had a crack or I am just a klutz or what but it broke so I was down to 8.

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After i painted them, they looked great, but were just plain boring brown. I had some leftover black vinyl from a Halloween project last year, and decided I would add some kick -A design. You could go the hard way and cut it yourself using scissors or an exacto knife OR you could become best friends with someone who owns a Cricut! I chose the latter. -- By the way, we were friends BEFORE she got the Cricut. No, i am not using her! We really are best friends!

I couldn't choose just 1 design, so I opted for 2

cute damask design


"M" for our last name

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After we cut the designs out, I applied them on top of the painted tile.

Then I applied 3 coats of modge-podge (let it dry between coats) This gives it a nice smooth clear finish

VIOLA! All finished!

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The breakdown:

tiles = 4 bucks

brown paint = 2 bucks

vinyl = I had some laying around but initially it was 10 bucks, i only used half so really 5 bucks

modge-podge= 8 bucks but I used only 1 buck worth and can save the rest

TOTAL= 12 bucks

Divide that by 8 and it's only 1.50/tile. Not too bad for something you love!

I know the numbers aren't exact, but the key is always to try to make it as cute as you can, by making it as inexpensive as possible. The best way i can do this is by using what I have.

The only things I didn't have were the tile and the paint so this time I only really spent 6 dollars and i really love the coasters and was able to make them my own!

I'm still trying to find a cute way to display them so until then, here they are!

UP TO MY EARS!

Just wanted to inform my loyal readers (do i even have loyal readers?!) that i have LOTS of things in the making and I am almost done with all of them so there will be blog updates very soon! Just like everyone else, i have a baby and also work a full time job so life gets busy! Plus the hubs and I took advantage of this past Saturday and got some spring cleaning in and some house projects finished. What's a girl to do?!


To keep you a little entertained and guessing, you can look forward to something cool from these cute little things .... any wild guesses?! There are more than just two, by the way!